Freshmen Help Get Season off to a Strong Start

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The Crimson women’s
tennis team had a solid performance at the 17th annual William and
Mary Invitational this weekend with three singles champions and a
doubles runner up.

Freshman Hideko Tachibana played sophomore Holly Cao in the finals
of Flight A, with Tachibana coming out the winner in a three-set
match. Cao defeated two of the ranked players in the flight, No. 3
Yevgeniya Stupak of East Tennessee State and No. 1 Michaela Kissel
of Marshall before falling 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3 to her teammate in the
final.

In the opening round of Flight B, junior Samantha Rosekrans
defeated Kelly Holtzhausen from East Tennessee State before bowing
to Richmond’s Helen Cunningham in a close three-set
match.

Playing in her first collegiate tournament, freshman Kristin
Norton came out as the champion of Flight C. In the finals, she
faced Yassmine Aikema from Winthrop, who had defeated the
flight’s No. 1 seed in the opening round, and was easily
named the champion after picking up a 6-0, 6-1 victory.

Flight D saw yet another Crimson champion as freshman Sophie Chang
defeated Marshall’s Kristina Koprcina in the final.
Chang’s toughest match came in the semifinal round when
VCU’s Josefin Hjertquist took the first set 3-6. Chang
bounced back and took the next two 6-4 and 6-1 to advance to the
final.

On the doubles side, the duo of Cao and freshman Alexandra Lehman
finished second in Flight B after falling to Marshall’s
Koprcina and Thaddea Lock with a score of 9-8.

“This was a very solid start to our fall season” head
coach Traci Green said after Harvard captured championships in
three of the five singles flights. “Our players got a chance
to shake off some of their summer rust and play a lot of matches.
Overall, I was impressed with the way everyone competed this
weekend. We will be building in practice for the rest of the fall
season from a good place.”

The Crimson return to the courts this weekend as they host the
Harvard Fall Classic at the Beren Tennis Center.